In the United States a vehicle theft occurs every 24.7 seconds. This amounts to roughly 1.2 million vehicles stolen every year. Seventy-three percent of these vehicles are eventually recovered in one form or another. However, the remaining 324,000 vehicles are never recovered. With an average value at the time of the theft of $7,100 this leaves the insurance company with a total loss on the non-recovered vehicles of 2.3 billion dollars.
The insurance industry losses from vehicle theft are actually much higher when adding in the cost of damage done to the vehicle while breaking into it and stealing it. The losses are further increased by parts that are removed from the stolen vehicle in between the time it is stolen and when it is recovered. If the damage or parts removed from the vehicle is extensive enough a recovered vehicle can even qualify as a total loss such as those non-recovered vehicles.
Additional losses are incurred by both insurance companies and individuals when the stolen vehicles are involved in car chases as well as accidents.
As evidenced by the numbers above the costs to the U.S. insurance companies and in turn their policy holders arising from auto theft are very alarming. In addition to the monetary losses, violent crimes associated with auto theft including car jacking, rape and murder also provide a sobering loss to consider.
The police list the vehicle on a hot sheet so officers will be on the look out for the stolen vehicle. The vehicles are typically stolen and then parked in a remote location or large parking lot where they will not be noticed. This provides time for the officers to stop looking for the vehicle. Once the vehicle has “cooled off” it can be moved by the vehicle thieves with little danger of being caught by the police. If the vehicle can be recovered during this “cooling off” period, it can be returned to its owner with minimal damage.
Several vehicle manufacturers have attempted to address this problem by selling vehicles equipped with a satellite communication link coupled with GPS locating equipment. These provide a link to a call center in the event the panic button is pushed or the vehicle is involved in a collision. However, these systems depend upon satellite communication and are not made to be retrofitted to existing non-equipped vehicles. They are also not capable of contacting the local 911 centers directly from the vehicle. Therefore there is a need for a vehicle alarm system that can be retrofitted to existing vehicles.
There is also a need for a vehicle alarm system which can contact the authorities while also contacting the owner of the vehicle and notifying of the theft of their vehicle.
Further there is also a need for an alarm system which can provide the authorities with the location of the vehicle.